VENUS IN FUR, VIOLETTE & More Set for August's Finest in World Cinema Series at WHBPAC

The Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center continues its "Finest in World Cinema" Series through August! Andrew Botsford of Quogue, visiting professor and communications consultant for the graduate arts program at Stony Brook Southampton and co-host of the annual Hamptons Take 2 Documentary Film Festival, will introduce our summer films each Tuesday night and discuss the films afterwards with guest commentators, followed by an informal audience discussion. An actor with the Hampton Theatre Company in Quogue since 1985, Andrew has written extensively about film and theater and was for 20 years the associate editor of The Southampton Press and editor of its Arts & Living section.

Screening only the best current release art house, foreign, independent, and documentary films that run concurrently at the most prominent film houses in New York City, this year's "Finest in World Cinema" series promises to be the best series ever! Tickets to all films are $15 for adults, $9 for students/seniors, and $5 for WHBPAC Film Society members and can be purchased online at www.whbpac.org. Join our Film Society and receive 20 discounted admissions per calendar year, free admittance to a film on your birthday, and two free film tickets for each new member you refer. Start enjoying member perks today! Call (631) 288-1500 to sign up.

Violette
Directed by Martin Provost
August 5-7, 8pm

Violette Leduc, born out of wedlock at the beginning of the 20th century, encountered Simone de Beauvoir in the post-WWII years in St-Germain-des-Pres. The intense relationship between the two women would last their entire lives: for Violette, a relationship based on the quest for freedom through writing, and for Simone, on the conviction that she held the fate of an extraordinary writer in her hands.
NYT Critics' Pick, French, Not Rated, 132 Minutes

Venus in Fur
Directed by Roman Polanski
August 12-14, 8pm

This film is based on the Tony Award-winning Broadway play by David Ives, which itself was based on Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's groundbreaking novella that inspired the term "masochism." Thomas Novachek is the writer-director of a new play opening in New York City. After a long day of auditioning, Vanda Jordan, bursts in and Thomas reluctantly agrees to let her try out for the part. As the extended "audition" builds momentum, Thomas moves from attraction to obsession until, with Vanda taking an ever more dominant role, the balance of power shifts completely.
French/German, Not Rated, 96 Minutes